Wishful Thinking Read online

  Sometimes she wondered why she cared. When she’d first started the job, she and Christian had needed the money to survive. Her fiancé had been dead set against them taking out any more loans than they had to, which was the main reason she’d put off going to law school herself. But now with Christian making more money maybe she could afford to quit. Then she got practical—they were saving for the wedding and being suddenly unemployed would put a serious crimp in her plans.

  Besides, she needed this job as a recommendation for whatever law school she ended up attending. Atwood Dickson Senior, her boss’s father and one of the senior partners, had even promised to write her a letter when the time came. Phil knew the letter would probably talk about her excellent work habits but in her opinion, there was no higher praise than the fact that she was willing to put up with his pig of a son.

  Phil sighed to herself. She’d tried a few times over the years to let her fiancé know what she put up with at work, but his response was always the same.

  “Look, babe,” he’d say in his most reasonable voice. “I know you have it tough but I do, too. School is killing me right now and I just need you to be strong and hang in there a little while longer. I promise as soon as I get out and start my career with a good firm we’ll get married and you can ditch that crappy job and go back to school yourself. Okay?”

  Right. Only he’d been out of law school almost a year and here she was, still working at BB&D and getting nowhere fast. Phil wondered if she ought to wish for career advancement when her fairy godmother appeared that evening. But then again, who knew what the FG considered advancement? She might find herself the highest paid hooker on Seventh Avenue if she wasn’t careful. No, she’d learned the hard way that fairy magic wasn’t the answer to bettering her life. But what was?

  “Hey, sweetheart, what about that file?” Dickson’s voice broke into her inner monologue and Phil brought the Jackson file to his desk. “Good girl!” He swatted her behind and Phil had to bite the inside of her cheek to keep from slapping him. Jerk! Asshole!

  “Mister Dickson, can we please get down to business here?”

  “Well, now, we can do that. Why didn’t you just say you wanted to give me the business?” He gave her a leering grin and Phil felt the skin between her shoulder blades start to crawl. God, what she wouldn’t give to be able to tell him off! Instead, she gritted her teeth and opened the file. It was going to be a long morning.

  Chapter Five

  Phil shut the door of Dickson’s office and trudged down the hallway to the break room where the first aid kit was kept. She’d managed to get a nasty paper cut from one of the files she’d been going over with her boss but it turned out to be a good thing. Dickson couldn’t stand the sight of blood so she was able to shave a few minutes off her time with him and go in search of a Band-Aid.

  “Swann!” The familiar voice was like a ray of sunshine warming her. Phil turned to see Josh behind her in the narrow hall leading away from Dickson’s office.

  “Bowman.” She tried to smile but the corners of her mouth just didn’t want to turn up. Phil knew her smile’s failure to launch was just aftermath of spending the morning with her lecherous boss. It was like treading water in a pool filled with slime—she always felt exhausted and in need of a hot shower when she finally got out of his office.

  “Hey, you got a minute? It’s almost lunch time.” Today he had on a dark green shirt with the top two buttons undone and his tie was pulled adorably askew so that she could see the natural tan of his broad chest.

  “Sure, I guess I could take my lunch now,” she said as he fell into step beside her. “So what have you been doing all day? Defragging the computers? Keeping us safe from evil viruses?”

  Josh grinned and nudged her gently with one elbow. “Nah. Trying to install a new application for the file directory that Dickhead Senior thinks will make you guys more productive.” He shrugged. “Fair warning though—it won’t. I think it’s gonna make your life hell. But don’t worry—after about a week it’s going to crash and burn and you’ll be back to a system that works.”

  Josh was the IT guy and a good one at that. Phil often wondered why he stayed in such a dead end job when he could have moved anywhere in the country and probably made a lot more money in the process. Although the senior partners at BB&D didn’t know it, he saved them hundreds of thousands of dollars each year by keeping the office computer systems running smoothly and personally vetting all the new software they purchased. If an expensive new application turned out to be a complete bust, it would either crash or be declared “incompatible” after a week or so, much to the relief of the secretaries and paralegals who actually had to deal with it.

  “Crap.” She sighed. “Why do they keep doing this to us?”

  “Haven’t you heard, Swann? Progress.” Josh furrowed his brow and made his voice deep and pompous, doing a flawless imitation of Dickson Senior.

  His expression was so comical that Phil put a hand to her mouth to stifle a giggle, forgetting the paper cut until she rubbed the wounded pad of her finger against her cheek. “Ow!” She pulled back at once and looked up at Josh. “Do I have blood on my face?”

  “Yup, looks like war paint. What did you do to your finger?” He took her hand gently in both of his and examined it.

  “It’s just a paper cut. I was going to the break room for a Band-Aid.”

  “Well, it just so happens that’s exactly where I wanted to take you. Come on.” Without relinquishing her hand, Josh led her to the break room, which was thankfully empty of the slithery Alison and any of her man-prey.

  He sat her at the small table, which was just about big enough for two, and began rummaging in the cabinets for the first aid kit. “So, are you going to the beach party Thursday?” he asked, bringing the kit to the table and pulling out hydrogen peroxide and a piece of gauze.

  Phil sighed. “Of course—how could I miss it? If it’s anything like last year I’m sure it’ll be very, ah, entertaining.”

  “Meaning we get to see Dickhead Junior in a banana hammock again, I take it.” Josh grinned.

  “Ugh!” Phil made a face. “Please, Josh.”

  He laughed, a deep rumbly sound that Phil had always liked. “What a sight—definitely a morale booster, I’d say. And isn’t that the point of the office beach day? I mean, getting to see your coworkers in their bathing suits is so much more rewarding that getting say, a raise or a bonus.” He began arranging the first aid items in front of him. The little white gauze squares looked tiny in his large hands.

  “Absolutely. Seeing all the senior partners and their hairy, sunburned backs is better than a bonus in my book any day.” She reached for the gauze but Josh pulled it away.

  “Uh-uh-uh, Swann. The doctor is in. Just sit still and let me do my thing.”

  “Oh, I didn’t realize you held an advanced degree in finger bandage-ology.” She gave up and relinquished her finger.

  “There’s a lot you don’t know about me, Swann.” Josh’s brow furrowed as he worked on her finger and he spoke with the distracted air of someone concentrating deeply on the task before them. One thing Phil liked about her best friend was the way he gave his complete attention to whatever he was interested in. When she talked to him, she always got the feeling that he was focusing on what she had to say, not just waiting for his own turn to talk—the opposite of coworkers like Kelli.

  “So speaking of coworkers in their bathing suits, you should have heard Alison describing her ‘tiny naughty bikini’ to Davis Miles this morning,” Phil said, trying to distract herself from the sting of the peroxide. If it had been up to her, she would have rinsed the cut finger in the sink and slapped a bandage on it. But typical of Josh, he was treating the whole process like a complicated and delicate surgical procedure.

  “Uh-huh. And what are you going to be wearing?” He glanced up at her and grinned, taking the innuendo out of his words. “Something that will leave us all buzzing for days with its daring cut? A fashion s